Drunken thuggery and anti-social behaviour was rife as long ago as the 1600s, an academic from Warwick University has discovered.

Angela McShane-Jones has published a research research paper called Roaring Royalists and Ranting Brewers which follows comments from Home Secretary David Blunkett about drunken louts being the scourge of modern society.

Ms McShane-Jones describes how ritual alcohol drinking, called health drinking, was the way people expressed their loyalty to the king and the church in the 1600s - and it sometimes descended into drunken disorder.

The historian said: "Binge drinking is far from a modern problem.

"Saint Monday was a phrase indicating the inability of people to work on a Monday because of the way they had entertained themselves after church the day before."

Historical records indicate that by modern standards alcohol consumption was high.

Account books of Berkshire farmer Robert Loder show that, on his farm, people drank between six and eight pints of beer a day.